The biggest issue in American politics doesn't exist yet

AI is everywhere. Does anybody care?

Trump loves to use AI on social media. But as a political issue, the battle lines around AI have yet to be drawn. (Photo by Mandel NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Welcome back to The Argument’s poll series, where we survey Americans on the issues everyone’s fighting about. Our full crosstabs are available below the paywall at the end of this post. Our last surveys have asked about crime, the economy, gender issues, immigration, education and parenting, the lingering politics of COVID-19, immigration, AI, and free speech. The Argument’s full methodology can be read here.

---

There’s a giant political prize sitting in the middle of American politics just waiting to be picked up.

In The Argument‘s latest national survey of 3,008 registered voters, we asked which party people trusted more on a long list of issues. On every other issue we tested — including the economy, health care, crime, and corruption — at least 60% of voters could pick a side.

Then we asked about AI.

Even though AI is everywhere, nobody cares about it yet. In fact, just 6% of voters ranked it as a top-two issue in our most recent polling. It’s close to dead last in voter prioritization at the moment, tied with climate change and above only LGBT issues.

The rest of this article and our poll’s full crosstabs are available to paid subscribers. We hope you’ll consider supporting our work. Thanks for reading!